Nutanix Mine™ is the product name for joint solutions between Nutanix and select data
protection software vendors. Nutanix Mine is a dedicated backup solution, where only backup
component VMs run on the Mine cluster and the cluster storage is used to store backup workloads.
This version of Mine is a fully integrated data protection appliance that combines the
Nutanix AOS and Objects software with the HYCU Data Protection for Enterprise Clouds solution.
Mine can provide data protection for applications running in a Nutanix cluster and also for
other virtualized workloads running in your datacenter.
Mine includes the following features:
Enterprise-grade data protection to any workload in your datacenter.
Integrated installation and configuration experience.
Integrated management experience.
Seamless scale-out, self-healing, and break-fix functionality.
Note:
The Mine cluster is not a disaster recovery solution, thus restoring primary or production
workloads to the Mine cluster is not supported currently. Attempting to run restored VMs on a
Mine cluster disrupts the HA functionality of the cluster. If a node fails, the system might
not be able to recover all the HYCU services automatically.
Overview of Mine™ with HYCU
Nutanix Mine with HYCU is a high-performance backup and recovery solution for the
Nutanix hyperconverged platform.
HYCU is fully integrated with Nutanix, making data protection easy to deploy and simple to
use. Nutanix Mine with HYCU allows you to manage production (primary) and backup (secondary)
infrastructures using Nutanix Prism. You can order Nutanix Mine with HYCU as a single SKU that
enables you to deploy and to scale up a turnkey backup solution.
For information on performing various tasks, such as deploying and upgrading HYCU to a
Nutanix cluster, registering HYCU with Nutanix Prism, and accessing HYCU from the Nutanix
Prism web console for Nutanix Mine with HYCU, see HYCU User Guide.
Note:
You can deploy Mine only from the HYCU backup controller user interface. For information
on deploying the HYCU backup controller, see
Deploying a temporary HYCU backup
controller
section in HYCU User Guide.
Mine™ with Veeam Guide
Mine 3.0
Product Release Date: 2021-07-06
Last updated: 2022-12-12
Release Notes
Release 3.0
Mine™ with Veeam release 3.0 includes the following new features:
When deploying a Mine™ cluster, you now have to option to use an existing Veeam Backup
& Replication server instead of deploying a new server within the Mine™ cluster (see
step 8 in Deploying a Mine™ Cluster).
If you deploy a new Veeam Backup & Replication server (instead of using an existing
one), the storage capacity of the new server VM has been increased to 400 GiB. The larger
size provides expanded replication capacity as the server contains a repository to store
metadata for replication jobs.
When you deploy a new Veeam Backup & Replication server, the Nutanix AHV plug-in is
installed automatically on the deployed server. This allows you to add AHV clusters to the
Veeam Backup & Replication infrastructure and protect Nutanix AHV VMs.
The Mine™ dashboard in Prism includes a new capacity trend widget (see Monitoring the Cluster).
The Veeam Scale-out Repositories view now reports storage counters from a Mine™ cluster.
Mine™ data extents live on the same storage container, and the view displays the physical
capacity and free space of the SOBR as a whole (counting summarized resources of all
repositories added to the SOBR). If you select the Scale-out Repository, you can refer to
the Used Space column to view occupied space on each repository extent.
Mine™ now supports Veeam Data Mover services on repository VMs. SSH
access is disabled on Linux repositories by default. Certificate-based authentication is
used instead.
The Mine™ console
Settings
page includes two new tabs,
Repositories
and
Time Zone Settings
(see
Updating Repositories and Setting Time Zone).
Note the following:
The Veeam hardened (immutable) repository option is not supported for a Mine™
cluster.
If you upgrade from an older (pre-3.0) Mine™ version, credentials for Mine™ repositories
and proxies can appear twice. You can remove the doubled records if the credentials are no
longer used (see Editing and Deleting Credentials Records).
Keep the Foundation for Mine™ VM turned on at all times. If a job or policy targeted to
the Mine™ scale-out repository fails with a "No scale-out repository extents are available"
or "Repo-Veeam-Lin-Node3 extent is offline" error message, the reason is likely because
the Foundation for Mine™ VM is turned off or there is no connection to it. The same error
might occur if the IP address of the Foundation for Mine™ VM is changed or the UID of the
Nutanix backup container is changed.
If you see a "CD-Rom not found on Foundation for Mine VM" error message when attempting
to upload a Windows ISO image during deployment (see step 7
in Deploying a Mine™ Cluster), check that a
CD-ROM is present in the VM configuration and reboot the
Foundation for Mine™ VM. If the issue remains, recreate the
Foundation for Mine™ VM. (Do not recreate the Foundation for
Mine™ VM on a deployed cluster.)
If the time zone and NTP settings are configured in Prism before deploying the Mine™
cluster, the settings are not applied to the repository VM. To avoid the problem and set
the repository VM time zone properly, first deploy the cluster and then log on to the Mine™
console and set the time zone (see Setting Time Zone).
You can unintentionally shift the time zone twice after doing the following:
Select a time zone in the VM settings when creating the Foundation for Mine™ VM.
Select the same time zone for the cluster in the Mine™ console.
Set the synchronization mode to
HOST
.
To avoid the issue, do the following:
When creating the Foundation for Mine™ VM, select
UTC
for the
Timezone setting.
After creating the VM, log on to the Mine™ console and select the time zone for your
region (see Setting Time Zone).
This guide provides instructions for installing and deploying a Mine™ cluster. However,
only designated Nutanix and Veeam sales or support personnel (or certified VAR personnel)
should perform the installation. (The
FoundationMine
image ISO to
create the Foundation for Mine™ with Veeam VM is provided to the designated Nutanix, Veeam,
or VAR personnel.)
A Mine™ cluster requires a current LTS version of AOS, either 5.20 or 5.15. AOS STS
versions are not recommended.
After installation, DO NOT delete, reconfigure, or shut down the Foundation for Mine™
with Veeam VM or any of the six deployed VMs (
Veeam-Win-Node1
,
Veeam-Win-Node2
,
Veeam-Win-Node3
,
Veeam-Lin-Node1
,
Veeam-Lin-Node2
,
Veeam-Lin-Node3
).
Instead of using the default admin account to administer a Mine™ cluster, it is recommend
that you create a separate administrator account for Mine™. Using a separate account
circumvents two potential issues that could occur when using the default admin account
(warnings may appear about external authentication and robot accounts are not obliged
under security policies to have password change after every n months).
If the custom Mine™ dashboard does not appear in Prism (see Monitoring the Cluster), refresh (clear) the cache on your browser and
redisplay Prism. The missing Mine™ dashboard should now appear.
When uploading a Windows image to install (see step 7 in Deploying a Mine™ Cluster), be sure it is Windows Server 2019 Standard Edition as
that is the only supported version currently.
Foundation for Mine™ with Veeam automatically installs Veeam Backup & Replication
version 11 Cumulative Patch 2 (11.0.0.837 P20210525).
If you see an "Unable to load Mine configuration settings …" error when viewing the
Mine™ dashboard in Prism, the problem is likely DNS related.
To circumvent the issue, access Prism using an IP address
instead of a host name.
A default container (named default-
xxx
) is created as part of
creating a Nutanix cluster. Do not delete or rename the default container before deploying
a Mine™ cluster because Mine™ requires this container.
The Mine™ dashboard does not appear in Prism when you access the cluster (Prism Element)
from Prism Central. It appears in Prism only when you log on to the cluster directly.
Overview
Video:
Mine™ Overview
This video https://youtu.be/9NQRreAF1I0 is from Nutanix, Inc. on YouTube.
Nutanix Mine™ is the product name for joint solutions between Nutanix and select data
protection software vendors. Nutanix Mine™ is a dedicated backup solution, where only backup
component VMs run on the Mine™ cluster and the cluster storage are used to store backup
workloads.
This version of Mine™ is a fully integrated data protection appliance that combines the
Nutanix AOS software with the Veeam Backup & Replication solution. Mine™ can provide data
protection for applications running in a Nutanix cluster and for other virtualized workloads
running in your datacenter. Mine™ includes the following features:
Enterprise-grade data protection to any workload in your datacenter
Integrated installation and configuration experience
Integrated management experience
Seamless scaleout, self-healing, and break-fix functionality
Note:
The Mine™ cluster is not a disaster recovery solution, thus restoring primary or production
workloads to the Mine™ cluster is not supported currently. Attempting to run restored VMs on a
Mine™ cluster disrupts the HA functionality of the cluster. If a node fails, the system might
not be able to recover all the Veeam services automatically.
The Mine™ appliance comes in three initial sizes, "extra small" and "small" versions that
include one preconfigured NX-1465 block and a "medium" version that includes two preconfigured
NX-8235 blocks. You can add more NX-8235 blocks (but not NX-1465 blocks) to scale out the
cluster for more capacity.
Table 1.
Mine™ Appliance Specifications
Specification
X-Small
Small
Medium
Scale Out
Model
NX-1465-G7
NX-1465-G7
NX-8235-G7 (x 2)
NX-8235-G7
Rack Size
2U
2U
4U
2U
Number of Nodes
4
4
4
2
Processor (per node)
2x Intel Xeon Silver 4210 (10-core 2.2 GHz)
2x Intel Xeon Silver 4210 (10-core 2.2 GHz)
2x Intel Xeon Silver 4214 (12-core 2.2 GHz)
2x Intel Xeon Silver 4214 (12-core 2.2 GHz)
RAM (per node)
192 GB
192 GB
192 GB
192 GB
SSD (per node)
1x 1.92 TB
1x 1.92 TB
2x 1.92 TB
2x 1.92 TB
HDD (per node)
2x 6 TB
2x 12 TB
4x 12 TB
4x 12 TB
Networking (per node)
2 or 4x 10 GbE
2 or 4x 10GbE
2 or 4x 10 GbE, or 2x 25/40 GbE
2 or 4x 10 GbE, or 2x 25/40 GbE
Raw Capacity
48 TB
96 TB
192 TB
96 TB
Effective Capacity
30–50 TB
60-100 TB
120–200 TB
60–100 TB
Veeam Universal Licenses (VUL)
0 (naked Mine)
250
500
250 (additional)
Installation
Installing and configuring your Mine™ with Veeam solution requires the following steps:
Install the Mine™ appliance (see Installing a Mine™ Appliance).
Deploy a Mine™ cluster (see Deploying a Mine™ Cluster).
Configure the Veeam backup and replication solution (see Configuring Veeam).
Installing a Mine™ Appliance
About this task
To install a Mine™ appliance at your site, do the following:
Note:
The Mine™ cluster itself only supports AHV as a hypervisor. While Mine™ with Veeam
can back up workloads from other hypervisors or physical infrastructure, the Mine™
cluster itself is deployed with AHV as the hypervisor.
Procedure
Unpack the block and nodes (see the Getting Started Guide for steps 1–4).
Mount the block in a rack.
Connect each node to the network.
Create a cluster of the Mine™ nodes with AHV as the hypervisor.
Use the AHV version bundled with the supported AOS (LTS) package. The
recommended memory size for the Controller VMs is 32 GB.
Download the
NutanixFoundationForMineWithVeeam-
<ver#>
.vmdk
file from the Nutanix Mine™ download page in the Nutanix Support
portal.
Note:
See the
"Logging Into the Web Console" section in
the Prism Web Console Guide
if you need help when logging on to
Prism for the first time. In addition, an iSCSI data services IP address
should be specified for the cluster before deploying Mine™ (see the "Modifying Cluster Details"
section).
Allocate 4 vCPUs and 4 GB of memory to this VM. Select
Clone from Image
Service
as the operation and
FoundationMine
as the image when adding the
disk.
Note:
The VM is named "Foundation for Mine with Veeam"
throughout this document, but you can name the VM
anything you want when you create it.
Deploying a Mine™ Cluster
Before you begin
Make sure that AOS and AHV are up and running on the Mine cluster before attempting
this procedure.
About this task
Video:
Mine™ Deployment Example
This video https://youtu.be/e13I-VXVaoo is from Nutanix, Inc. on YouTube.
To deploy a new Mine™ cluster, do the following:
Procedure
Do one of the following to access the Mine™ console:
If DHCP is configured for the production network, open a web browser and
enter
http://
foundation_for_mine_with_veeam_vm_ip_addr
.
This defaults to port 8743, which is the port for the Mine™ web
console.
Note:
The supported browsers are the current version and two
major versions back of Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, plus Internet
Explorer version 11.
If DHCP is not configured, log on to Prism, go to the VMs dashboard,
select the Foundation for Mine with Veeam VM, and
click the
Launch Console
button (below the table) to open the console. In
the console, do the following to manually set the
IP address:
Log on to the VM (both user name and password
are "veeam").
Open the
/etc/network/interfaces
file
for editing. For example, to use the
nano
editor, enter
If
you require an Active Directory join, you also
must specify a DNS server with a proper Active
Directory record.
Enter your credentials (user name and password) in the appropriate
fields.
The default user name and password are both "
veeam
".
When you log on the first time, you are prompted to change the password. Be
sure to remember (save somewhere safe) the new password.
In the
Nutanix Mine with Veeam
Configuration
screen, click the
Setup
box.
The
Nutanix mine with Veeam cluster
setup
screen appears. The setup work
flow appears on the left with the step details on
the right.
In the
End User License Agreement
screen, read the
license agreements, check the two boxes at the bottom (
I accept the
terms of license agreement
and
I accept the terms of
the third-party components license agreement
), and then click
Next
.
Configure a virtual network for guest VM interfaces.
Note:
If the virtual network is not configured, the
Foundation for Mine VM unable to utilize connected network for
setup
error message appears.
In the
Nutanix Cluster Credentials
page, do the following
in the indicated fields:
Prism Element IP Address/Hostname
: Enter the
virtual IP address for the cluster (if configured) or the IP address (or
host name) of a Controller VM in the cluster.
Note:
It is recommended that you use the cluster virtual IP address. If
a Controller VM IP address is used and that node goes down, contact
Nutanix customer support to reconfigure Mine™ to work with a
different node IP address.
Description
(optional): Enter a description for
the cluster.
Prism Element User Name
: Enter the cluster
administrator (Prism) user name.
Note:
It is recommended that you create a separate local account for
Mine™. Active Directory is not recommended as an issue with Active
Directory could prevent access to the Mine™ cluster.
Prism Element Password
: Enter the cluster
administrator password.
In the
Nutanix Mine with Veeam Cluster
Information
page, review the information
and then click the
Next
button.
This page displays information about the nodes in the
cluster. Verify that the information is correct
before proceeding.
In the
Windows Upload
page, choose one of the following
and then click the
Next
button.
To upload a Windows ISO file from your workstation, click the
Use External ISO
option, click the
Browse
button, and select that ISO file on your
workstation.
If the ISO file is already loaded, click the
Use internal
ISO
option and select Windows from the pull-down
list.
Note:
Windows Server 2019 Standard Edition is the only supported version.
[new Veeam server only] In the
Veeam Backup & Replication
Deployment Settings - License Upload
page, click the
Upload File
button, upload your Veeam license file,
and then click the
Next
button.
Note:
Only VUL licenses are accepted. If you are an existing Veeam customer and
do not have instance-based (VUL) licenses,
obtain an evaluation license from
Veeam
and enter the evaluation key here. Once the deployment is
complete, you can apply your current Veeam license through the Veeam Backup
& Replication console.
In the
Veeam Backup & Replication Deployment Settings
page, do one of the following:
To deploy a new Veeam server instance for Mine™, check the
Deploy New Veeam Backup & Replication Server
option and click the
Next
button. (Skip to the next
step.)
To use an existing Veeam server instance for Mine™, check the
Use Existing Veeam Backup & Replication
Server
option and do the following:
Note:
The following are
prerequisites for using an existing Veeam server instance:
The firewall allows communication between the Veeam server
instance and the Mine™ cluster through ports 5985 and 8743.
In the
IP Address
field, enter the IP address of
the Veeam server instance to use for Mine™.
You can specify Veeam Backup & Replication version 11 Cumulative
Patch 2 (11.0.0.837 P20210525) or later. Backup repositories and
backup proxies deployed within the Mine™ cluster will be connected to
the specified Veeam Backup & Replication instance.
In the
User Name
and
Password
fields, enter the Windows server
administrator credentials (any user account with administrator
privileges).
Click the
Test Connection
button to verify the
network connection, authentication, compatibility, and license validity
between the Veeam server instance and Mine™ cluster.
If there is a problem, an error message appears. Address the
indicated problem and then retry the
Test
Connection
button. When the test completes
successfully, click the
Next
button. (Skip to
step 12.)
[new Veeam server only] In the
Veeam Backup & Replication
Deployment Settings – Network Settings
page, do the following in
the indicated fields:
Network Name
: Displays the network name.
The field is read-only for the primary network configuration. If you
create a guest network (later in this procedure), select the name
for the guest network from the pull-down list for an existing
network or enter the name for a new network.
VLAN ID
: Displays the VLAN ID for the network.
The field is read-only for the primary network configuration, but you
specify the VLAN ID for a guest network. If you specify a VLAN other
than 0, make sure that network switches are configured
accordingly.
Starting IP
: Enter a starting IP address. The
VMs are assigned sequential IP addresses after the starting IP
address.
Mine™ requires eight available IP addresses.
Subnet Mask
: Enter the subnet mask.
Gateway
: Enter the gateway IP address.
DNS1
and
DNS2
: Enter the
DNS server IP address in the
DNS1
field. To
specify a second DNS server, enter that address in the
DNS2
field.
If you require an Active Directory join, you must specify a DNS
server with a proper Active Directory record.
VM Hostname
and
IP
Address
: Update the VM names or IP addresses as
needed.
The VM names and IP addresses are populated automatically. There are
three Windows VMs named
Veeam-Win-Node
x
and
three Linux VMs named
Veeam-Lin-Node
x
with
x
being a sequential number from 1 to 3. You
can change the name of a VM by entering a different name in the
VM Hostname
field. The IP addresses are
assigned sequentially to the VMs starting after the
Starting IP
address, but you can change
that address in the
IP Address
field for a
VM.
The Windows VMs are configured with 8 vCPUs and 16 GB memory, and
they are used to manage the Veeam Backup & Replication
application. The Linux VMs are configured with 8 vCPUs and 128 GB
memory, and they are used to manage the Veeam scale out backup
repository.
Note:
If you have multiple Mine™ clusters, it is recommended that you
provide custom host names instead of the defaults to prevent
duplicate namespace issues.
(optional) To create an additional network for guest processing, check
the
create additional network for guest
processing
box.
If you want the VMs to be backed up on a different network than the
Veeam infrastructure, you can create this additional network for
that purpose. (Creating an additional network is optional.)
When all the fields are correct, click the
Next
button.
The installer verifies the network configuration before
proceeding.
[new Veeam server only] If the guest network box was checked in the previous
step, the network configuration screen reappears with an additional
Network
field at the top. Enter the values for the
guest network and then click the
Next
button.
In the
Network
field, select either
New
(for a new network) or
Existing
(for an existing network) from the
pull-down list.
In the
Windows Credentials
page, do the following in the
indicated fields:
Local Windows Administrator
: Enter the user name
for the Windows administrator.
Password
: Enter the user password.
Repeat Password
: Reenter the password.
To enable Microsoft Active Directory integration, check the box. This
displays the following four fields.
Note:
Joining to Active Directory is optional and not recommended in
most cases.
Domain Name
: Enter the AD domain name.
User Name
: Enter the AD administrator user name
in the
domain\name
format.
Password
: Enter the AD administrator
password.
When all the fields are correct, click the
Next
button.
In the
Review Configuration Settings
page, review the
information and then do one of the following:
If the information is correct, click the
Start
Install
button.
If the information is incorrect, click the
Previous
button and fix the configuration as
needed in the preceding screens. Return to this page and click the
Start Install
button.
The top part of the page displays information about the VMs Mine™ will create,
and the bottom part displays cluster information including virtual IP
address, storage capacity, and node count.
The installation begins. It typically takes over an hour (sometimes over 2
hours) for the installation to complete. A progress bar appears with status
messages as the installation progresses. You can monitor the progress in
more detail by logging on to Prism and checking the Task and VM dashboards
(see Monitoring the Cluster).
When the
Windows Licensing
page appears, do one of the
following:
To activate Windows (optional), check the box, enter a Windows license
key for each VM in the
Product Keys
fields, and then
click the
Activate
button.
To continue without activating Windows, click the
Next
button.
When the installation completes, a success (or error) message appears. The
success message includes a link to Prism; click the link to log on to Prism
so you can monitor and manage the Mine™ cluster.
What to do next
Deploying a Mine™ cluster creates a volume group, and both the volume group and
Foundation for Mine™ with Veeam VM are added automatically to a protection domain. A
schedule is set up to take daily snapshots of the protection domain. Tune the
schedule (if needed) per your company security policy.
It is recommended that you enable erasure coding (disabled by default). Erasure
coding can provide significant storage savings for a Mine™ cluster. See the "Erasure
Coding" and "Modifying a Storage Container" sections in the
Prism Web Console
Guide
for more information.
Configuring Veeam
About this task
To configure the Veeam backup and replication solution for a Mine™ cluster, do the
following:
Procedure
Log on to Prism.
Go to the
Mine with Veeam
dashboard (see
Monitoring the Cluster) and click
the
Launch Console
link in the
Cluster
widget.
This opens a Veeam console window at the login screen.
Enter the Windows administrator credentials you
supplied when deploying the cluster (see Deploying a Mine™ Cluster).
You can also launch the Veeam console by going to the VMs
dashboard, selecting the
Veeam-Win-Node1
VM, and
then clicking the
Launch
Console
button below the table.
Click the
Veeam Backup
icon on the desktop to open that
application.
Depending on which systems you want to back up with Nutanix Mine™, also check
the relevant guides from the following list to configure Veeam Backup &
Replication for your environment:
The backup infrastructure of Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV includes the following components:
Veeam Backup & Replication
: a starting point in the deployment
process. In the Veeam Backup & Replication console, you can add components required to
protect Nutanix AHV VMs.
Veeam Backup & Replication
: a starting point in the deployment
process. In the Veeam Backup & Replication console, you can add components required to
protect Nutanix AHV VMs.
Nutanix AHV Plug-in
: an installer component that deploys AHV Backup
Proxy services on the Veeam Backup & Replication server. After you install Nutanix AHV
Plug-in, you can add AHV clusters and AHV Backup Proxy instances to the Veeam Backup &
Replication infrastructure.
Veeam Backup & Replication
: a starting point in the deployment
process. In the Veeam Backup & Replication console, you can add components required to
protect Nutanix AHV VMs.
Nutanix AHV Plug-in
: an installer component that deploys AHV Backup
Proxy services on the Veeam Backup & Replication server. After you install Nutanix AHV
Plug-in, you can add AHV clusters and AHV Backup Proxy instances to the Veeam Backup &
Replication infrastructure.
AHV Backup Proxy
: the main component that manages backup and
restore processes. AHV Backup Proxy allows you to create VM backups, snapshots and restore
VMs from backups to an AHV cluster.
AHV Backup Proxy is deployed as a VM on the AHV
cluster. For one Nutanix AHV cluster, one AHV Backup Proxy is required. To back up and
restore VMs on multiple clusters, you must deploy an AHV Backup Proxy appliance on each
cluster.
AHV Backup Proxy includes the following other components:
Data Mover
: a service that transports VM backup data from AHV
cluster to backup repositories.
AHV Backup Proxy web console
: a web console that allows you to
manage backup and restore operations, configure notifications and configure settings of
AHV Backup Proxy.
Backup repository
a storage location where AHV Backup Proxy stores
backup files. The backup repository also includes a Data Mover service that is responsible
for receiving VM backup data from the AHV cluster.
You can add multiple repositories and select the required one within settings of a specific
backup job.
The web console sends the backup job configuration data to AHV Backup Proxy.
AHV Backup Proxy starts a backup job and forwards the backup session data to Veeam Backup
& Replication.
AHV Backup Proxy connects to the AHV cluster over Nutanix REST API and takes a snapshot
of VMs or a PD added to the job.
AHV Backup Proxy creates a volume group (VG) on the AHV cluster and mounts VM disks
through iSCSI and retrieves VM data on block level.
Veeam Data Mover compresses and duplicates the VM data and forwards it to the backup
repository in the Veeam proprietary format.
Administration
After deploying a Mine™ cluster, you can monitor activity and perform administrative
tasks as needed.
Note:
Depending on the task, administration is through either the Mine™ or Prism web console. To
access the desired console, open a web browser and enter one of the following addresses:
Mine console:
http://
foundation_for_mine_with_veeam_vm_ip_addr
.
This defaults to port 8743, which is the port for the Mine™
web console.
Prism console:
http://
cvm_ip_addr
where
cvm_ip_addr
is the IP address for one of the Controller VMs in the
cluster or the virtual IP address if one was created. This defaults to port 9440, which is
the port for the Prism web console.
You can monitor cluster usage and health through Prism (see Monitoring the Cluster).
You can expand the cluster storage capacity by adding Mine™ blocks (see Expanding the Cluster).
You can upgrade the Mine™ version for the cluster (see Upgrading Mine Using Mine Console).
You can upgrade AOS in a Mine™ cluster, but it requires a few extra steps (see Upgrading AOS).
You can update your Veeam, Mine™, or Prism user credentials (see Updating User Credentials).
You can set the Mine™ cluster time zone (see Setting Time Zone).
You can install or update the Veeam Data Mover service for a Mine™ repository (see Updating Repositories).
If you encounter a problem with the cluster, you can download a support bundle that
contains various logs and other relevant data (see Downloading a Support Bundle).
If the installation fails or you want to start over for any reason, you can reset the
cluster back to the original state (see Resetting the Cluster).
If you want to perform cluster actions that require the backup processes be suspended, you
can enable a maintenance mode (see Maintenance Mode).
Monitoring the Cluster
You can monitor the Mine™ cluster health and activity through Prism. The Prism Web Console Guide describes how to use Prism.
(To determine the AOS version your Mine™ cluster is running, go to the
About
Nutanix
option under the
user_name
drop-down list in the
Prism main menu.)
Mine™ with Veeam Dashboard
The Prism web console includes a custom
Mine with Veeam
dashboard
specific to a Mine™ cluster, which appears by default when you first
log on to Prism. To view this custom dashboard at any time, select
Mine with Veeam
from the pull-down
list on the far left of the main menu.
The custom dashboard displays the following eight information tiles (widgets):
Cluster
. The cluster tile provides quick visual indicators for
the following components: cluster health (overall), Veeam implementation, Mine™ components,
and storage capacity (available). Green indicates a healthy component, yellow indicates a
warning condition, and red indicates a critical condition.
Click the
Launch Console
link to open a Veeam console.
Click the
Mine Platform
link to open the Mine™ console.
Physical Cluster Usage
. The physical cluster usage tile displays
a timeline graph of storage usage in the cluster.
Storage Throughput
. The storage throughput tile displays a
timeline graph of storage throughput in the cluster.
Protection
. The protection tile displays a summary of the VMs
and hosts protected currently.
Capacity Usage
. The capacity usage tile summaries the current
storage usage and available capacity (see Monitoring Storage).
Job Status
. The job status tile displays a summary of the
running, disabled, and idle jobs in the cluster currently.
Capacity Trends
. The capacity trend tile displays a timeline
graph of free space in the cluster, including a low space warning line. The widget
requires some time to collect data before it starts to show capacity trends. The widget
simply displays "N/A" until enough data is collected to show a trend line.
Veeam Backup & Replication Alerts and Events
. The Veeam
alerts and events tile displays a list of the current Veeam-specific alerts and
events.
Nutanix Alerts
. The Nutanix alerts tile displays a list of the
current Nutanix-specific alerts.
Other Dashboards
The Prism web console includes other dashboards to monitor specific elements of your
cluster.
Note:
All the following section and chapter citations are located in the Prism Web Console Guide.
You can monitor the Mine™ VMs through the VMs dashboard. This dashboard provides a
summary table of the VMs and allows you to view details about each VM. See the "VMs
Dashboard" section for more information.
Mine™ creates automatically a storage container and volume group that you can monitor
through the Storage dashboard. This dashboard provides summary and detailed information
about storage containers, volume groups, and storage pools. See the "Storage Dashboard"
section for more information.
You can monitor the progress and outcomes for Mine-related tasks through the Tasks
dashboard. See the "Task Status" chapter for more
information.
You can review the Mine-related alerts and events through the Alerts dashboard. See the
"Alert and Event Monitoring" chapter for more
information.
Monitoring Storage
When a Mine™ cluster is full, the cluster may become unavailable, and you will not be able
to continue backup operations. To prevent such a situation, Mine™ includes a special
monitoring feature (sometimes referred to as a "watchdog") that dynamically monitors storage
usage and takes action as necessary to avoid reaching a storage full condition. If available
storage space in the cluster falls below the minimum amount, the monitor automatically stops
and disables Veeam Backup & Replication jobs. The monitor is regulated by three
thresholds:
"Low on space" threshold (
restart_jobs_threshold_percent
parameter). When available storage space on a cluster reaches the specified threshold,
Veeam Backup & Replication starts to upload the VM backup files to Capacity Tier. For
details, see the "Capacity Tier" section of the
Veeam Backup & Replication User
Guide
.
"Job processing is impacted" threshold
(
cancel_jobs_threshold_percent
parameter). When available storage
space on a cluster reaches the specified threshold, Mine™ disables all Veeam Backup &
Replication jobs. Already started jobs continue the session, but subsequently scheduled
runs are suspended until more storage space become available.
"Immediate stop" threshold (
stop_issuing_jobs_threshold_percent
parameter). When available storage space on a cluster reaches the specified threshold,
Mine™ immediately stops all running jobs.
The monitor automatically calculates and defines the threshold values according to your
environment resources. (If you want to change default threshold values, contact technical
support.) In addition, the monitor regulates the location of VMs. If Veeam repository
extends and backup proxies are deployed on different AHV nodes, the monitor transfers them
to one node.
By default, Mine™ reserves enough storage space for node rebuild should one of the nodes
fail. If you want to add new VMs on the cluster or change the default monitor threshold
values, consider leaving enough space for the rebuild of the node.
Note:
When you free up space on a Veeam backup repository, it may take up to six hours until
you see the change reflected in the Mine™ dashboard.
Expanding the Cluster
About this task
To increase the storage capacity of your Mine™ cluster, you can add an expansion block
(see Overview). To add the nodes in an expansion block to
the cluster, do the following:
Procedure
Log on to the Mine™ console and enable maintenance mode (see Enabling Maintenance Mode).
Disable maintenance mode (see Disabling Maintenance Mode).
Upgrading Mine
You can upgrade the Mine software whenever a new version is available.
Upgrading Mine Using Mine Console
You can upgrade the Mine™ software using the Mine console whenever a new version is
available.
About this task
To check for and install an update, do the following:
Procedure
Log on to the Mine™ console.
Select
Check updates
from the main menu screen.
In the Updates page, do the following:
To check for available updates, click the
Check
updates
button.
Check the appropriate box to automatically check for available
updates.
When an update is available, the displays changes. Click the
Start update
button to start the
update.
If an update requires a reboot and you want to specify when that reboot
occurs, check the appropriate box and specify the time in the clock
field to the right.
If a time is not specified, the reboot (if required) happens
immediately when triggered as part of the upgrade process.
Upgrading Mine Using Veeam VM Console for Dark Sites
You can upgrade the Mine software for a dark site using a Veeam VM console. You can
use the dark site upgrade process to upgrade the Mine software at locations without Internet
access.
Before you begin
Ensure that you download the following packages if you are upgrading from Mine
1.0.
To restart Nirvana Management service to complete the upgrade, run the
following command:
$ sudo systemctl restart NirvanaManagement
Note:
You can also reboot the Foundation for Mine VM for the upgrade to
complete.
Upgrading AOS
Upgrading AOS requires a few additional steps for a Mine™ cluster.
About this task
To upgrade the AOS version in a Mine™ cluster, do the following:
Note:
It is recommended that you upgrade AOS only to a current (5.20 or 6.5) LTS
version. Do not upgrade to an STS version.
Procedure
Log on to the Mine™ console and enable maintenance mode (see Enabling Maintenance Mode).
Upgrade AOS for the cluster (see the "AOS Upgrade" chapter of the Acropolis Upgrade Guide for the target
AOS version).
After the AOS upgrade completes successfully, disable maintenance mode (see
Disabling Maintenance Mode).
Note:
The Mine™ dashboard is a custom feature in Prism, and that dashboard
disappears after upgrading AOS. The following step redeploys the Mine™
dashboard.
To redeploy the Mine™ dashboard, do the following:
Log on to the Mine™ console.
Select
Maintenance
from the main menu
screen.
Select
Redeploy Mine
Dashboard
from the maintenance menu
screen.
To verify the Mine™ dashboard is redeployed, log on to Prism, refresh the
screen, and check that the dashboard appears again (see Monitoring the Cluster).
Updating User Credentials
You can update your Veeam, Mine™, or Prism user credentials at any time.
About this task
To update user account credentials, do the following:
Procedure
Log on to the Mine™ console.
Select
Credentials manager
from the main menu
screen.
In the Credential manager window, do one or more of the following:
To update your Veeam user name or password, click the Veeam Backup &
Replication
Update
button. In the pop-up window,
update your user name or password in the indicated fields and then click
the
OK
button.
To update your cluster (console) user name or password, click the
Acropolis Cluster
Update
button. In the pop-up
window, update your user name or password in the indicated fields and
then click the
OK
button.
To update your Prism user name or password, click the Nutanix CVM
Update
button. In the pop-up window, update
your user name or password in the indicated fields and then click the
OK
button.
To update your Mine™ user information, click the
Set
button. In the pop-up window, enter the
current account (user) name and password in the first two fields and
then the new account name and password in the next two fields (and
reenter the new password in the last field to confirm). When all the
fields are correct, click the
OK
button.
Setting Time Zone
You can set (or update) the time zone for a Mine™ cluster at any time.
About this task
To set the time zone, do the following:
Procedure
Log on to the Mine™ console.
Select
Settings
>
Time Zone Settings
from the main menu screen.
In the
Time Zone Settings
tab, do the following in the
indicated fields:
Current Time
(read-only field): Displays the
current time of the cluster clock.
Current Time Zone
: Select the desired time zone
from the pull-down list.
Typically, the time zone is set to either the local time or a
universal (UTC) time.
Synchronization Mode
: Select the desired mode
(
HOST
or
NTP
) from the
pull-down list.
NTP Servers
: If you selected NTP in the previous
step, enter the IP address of the NTP server to use for synchronization.
To specify a list of NTP servers, enter the IP addresses in a
comma-separated list.
When the fields are correct, click the
Apply
button.
Updating Repositories
You can update the Veeam Data Mover service for a Mine™ repository at any
time.
About this task
Periodically, Veeam releases hot fixes and updates of Veeam Backup & Replication.
If you update Veeam Backup & Replication, you must also update the Veeam Data Mover service on Mine™
repositories.
Procedure
Log on to the Mine™ console.
Select
Settings
>
Repositories
from the main menu screen.
The
Repositories
tab appears with a list of the
Mine™ repositories. Each entry in the list displays the repository name, IP
address, transport service version (or installation state), and an update or
install button.
To install (or update) the data mover service for a Mine™ repository, click the
Install
(or
Update
) button for
that repository.
The
Update
button is always in the active state. If
you click
Update
, Veeam Backup & Replication
scans the Mine™ repository and updates the Data Mover service only if the
service is outdated.
Repeat the previous step for all repositories that require the Data Mover
service be installed or updated.
Downloading a Support Bundle
If you encounter a problem, you can download a support bundle to troubleshoot the
problem.
About this task
The support bundle contains service logs and other related data that can help locate
and diagnose system issues. To download a support bundle, do the following:
Procedure
Log on to the Mine™ console.
Select
Maintenance
from the main menu screen.
Select
Download support bundle
from the maintenance menu
screen.
This step downloads a ZIP (compressed) file to your workstation named
logs_veeam_
date&time
.zip
that contains the support bundle.
Note:
It is recommended that you generate a support bundle and provide it to
Nutanix customer support when you open a support case.
Resetting the Cluster
About this task
If the installation is not successful or you want to start over for any reason, you
first need to clean up and reset the environment. To reset a Mine™ cluster, do the
following:
Caution:
Resetting your cluster destroys all backed up data on the cluster
and cannot be undone.
Procedure
Log on to the Mine™ console.
Select
Maintenance
from the main menu screen.
Select
Reset Mine™ Cluster
from the maintenance menu
screen.
In the
Nutanix Cluster Credentials
screen, do the
following in the indicated fields and then click the
Next
button:
Prism Element IP Address/Hostname
: Enter the
virtual IP address for the cluster (if configured) or the IP address (or
host name) of a Controller VM in the cluster.
Prism Element User Name
: Enter the cluster
administrator (Prism) user name.
Password
: Enter the cluster administrator
password.
In the
Reset Settings
screen, check the boxes for the
virtual machines, networks, images, volume groups, and storage containers you
want to reset.
Click the plus sign for an entity tab (virtual machines, networks, and so on)
to see the list of those entities. All virtual machines, volume groups, and
storage containers are checked by default; the networks and images are not.
Review the list for each entity and adjust (add or remove check marks) as
desired.
When the settings are correct, enter
I agree
in the
field at the bottom on the page and then click the
Reset
button.
The reset process begins. Time estimates and a progress bar appear. When the
process completes, the message "Reset process has been completed
successfully" appears. Click the
Close
button. This
redisplays the
Nutanix Mine™ with Veeam Configuration
screen.
Maintenance Mode
Mine™ provides a maintenance mode that stops and disables all running backup jobs which are
targeted at the scale-out backup repository. Maintenance mode allows you to reconfigure
cluster settings, expand the cluster, and perform additional tasks that might otherwise
disrupt backup operations. When cluster maintenance is complete, you can disable maintenance
mode, which resumes the scheduling of backup jobs. (However, backup jobs that were stopped
during the maintenance window are not restarted.)
Enabling Maintenance Mode
About this task
To enable maintenance mode, do the following:
Procedure
Log on to the Mine™ console.
Select
Maintenance
from the main menu screen.
Select
Enable maintenance mode
from the maintenance menu
screen.
To verify maintenance mode is enabled, check the cluster widget on the Mine™
dashboard (see Monitoring the Cluster). The text
"maintenance mode on" appears when maintenance mode is enabled.
Disabling Maintenance Mode
About this task
To disable maintenance mode, do the following:
Procedure
Log on to the Mine™ console.
Select
Maintenance
from the main menu screen.
Select
Disable maintenance mode
from the maintenance
menu screen.
To verify maintenance mode is disabled, check the cluster widget on the Mine™
dashboard (see Monitoring the Cluster). The text
"maintenance mode on" no longer appears when maintenance mode is
disabled.